Extract of a letter from George Graham, acting Secretary of War, to Brevet Major General Edmund P. Gaines ~ Fort Hawkins, Georgia(Macon) , dated October 30, 1817.

 I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the lst instant, covering a copy of the reply which was made by ten of the Seminole towns, to the demand made by you on them for the surrender of the murderers of some of our citizens. These papers have been submitted to the President, and I am instructed by him to inform you that he approves of the movement of the troops from Fort Montgomery to Fort Scott; the appearance of this additional force, he flatters himself, will at least have the effect of restraining the Seminoles from committing further depredations and perhaps of inducing them to make reparation for the murders which they have committed. Should they, however, persevere in their refusal to make such reparation, it is the wish of the President that you should not,on that account, pass the line, and make an attack upon them within the limits of Florida, until you shall have received instructions from this department. You are authorized to remove the Indians still remaining on the lands ceded by the treaty made by General Jackson with the Creeks; and, in doing so, it may be proper to retain some of them as hostages until reparation may have been made for the depredations which have been committed. On this subject, however, as well as to the manner of removing them, you will exercise your discretion. McIntosh, and the other chiefs of the Creek nation, who were here some time since, expressed then, decidedly, their unwillingness to permit any of the hostile Indians to return to their nation.
P. S. The authority to remove the Indians will, of course, not extend to those Indians and their families who have claims to reservations on lands under the treaty. . .